Shape memory polymers: Past, present and future developments

Shape memory polymers (SMPs) represent a highly interesting class of materials. As one representative of the intelligent polymeric systems, these materials gained significant interest in recent years. Consequently, the variety of materials investigated virtually exploded and several promising shape memory effects have been developed. The present review will provide a short overview on the history of SMPs as well as the current developments and concepts for shape memory polymers. Additionally, future developments in this field will be discussed. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.